Planckendael in Kalmthout

Very beautiful and green zoo, plenty of space and special features for kids of all ages, friendly staff, interesting animals, impressive birds show, ...We have taken a yearly subscription because the park evolves so beautifully throughout the year. In Spring and early Summer, there are a lot of storks that build their nests in the park.

Beautiful place, well organized. We where just a little disappointed because there where almost no animals. Its like if they where on holiday 😬

First off all, you need almost one day to visit all! Secondly, this place feels more like a park its green and spatious. Even if we went in the autumn when animals prepare for the winter, I really enjoyed each continent and my favourite was flamingos with penguins area. There is an artesian well and a boat which in the summer kids can fools around and get wet:). Near was a float so you sit on and pass from one side to the other, kids love it! If you get hungry there are some restaurants that can satisfy your hunger and last but not list at the exit a souvenir point. For sure we will pay more visit.

The best place for families with kids!

Would give 5 stars but the restaurants werent open and we were very hungry. Park is beautiful.

A beautiful zoo with animals from almost all the continents.

Nice place to hold event. Good zoo as well. Maybe not as big as others but very green.

What a splendid day out with family and friends, nice atmosphere and real view of the zoo

Extremely well organized zoo where you can spend 5-8 fun family hours. There’s a lot to see and do.The only disappointment was the restaurant where we encountered bad food with outrageous prices.

Pretty good medium sized zoo with good shows and attractions. Be aware that the restaurants are mediocre at best with very limited food options. Better pack some lunch.

Today is a little bit windy , the park is kind of dusty.Need to walk a very long distance to see animals and unfortunately it’s very crowded. Cola, water all cost €4, even more than a fine restaurant. The light point is the flight show.

Weve been there twice now,and both times were dissapointing. There is a lot of unused space in the zoo. That way there are quite some moments where you walk through nature with nothing to see, or there is a huge climbing frame build for kids.The tropical hall where the orangutangs are is also dissapointing. In a place like that you would expect free flying birds, or reptiles in terrariums.

The zoo is really big. And its nice to see the environment of the animals. Very invested. It takes many hours to see everything. The children really enjoyed the show of the eagles. Need to come again to see what I didnt get to see.

Fantastic zoo near Brussels in the town of Mechelen. Very good accessibility from babies to teenagers. Wide range of animals which seem well looked-after. Lots of places to eat also. Single tickets can be expensive. Yearly tickets are much cheaper (including parking ticket). Even better is that you can use ecocheques for the tickets. Highly recommended for spending one hour to one day with kids.

One of the best animal parks in Europe! Especially good work regarding breeding endangered species

Europe area is dissapointing and America much walking little seeing

Nice place to spend a day with the family. Lots of kids activities but not so much animals. The zoo area is huge but the number of animals are less comparatively.They should also start some interactions with the animals else after a while its just boring to watch them.

Really well planned zoo. Very nice to visit. Amazing mix of play items for the very young kids and young adults too 😂. Good variety of animals and really well designed enclosures. Highly recommended and would visit again

Medium size zoo that is absolutely GREAT FOR FAMILIES with small children. The zoo is divided up into continents for which each contains a play area for children. One of the continents has a shallow pool for children to walk in and out of which is absolutely awesome in the summer. Lots of food and beverage stations throughout the zoo. There is a regular shuttle service between the zoo and Mechelen Station that is free with a purchase of zoo admission.

Great place to spend a day or two.

Absolutely amazing! Great place to be for young and old.

Great place to spend with your kids. Sadly Belgian people do not anticipate their movings towards other guests of the park. They just stand there and block passage at almost every road inside the park. We could not see the lions because someone tought it was more important to have a chitchat with their friends in front of the glass windows making it impossible for other to see. But we enjoyed their conversation. Not really what we paid for. Overall a very nice park to visit.

A big zoo with plenty of activities. However, its rather expensive for what it provides - there are not too many exotic animals, many wont be visible when you visit and there are extremely limited avenues of interaction with animals. No petting zoo, no aquarium and overpriced food. If you have a membership, by all means spend a nice day there. But you might want to consider a theme park instead for the expense.Props for the great flamingo and penguin enclosure though.

Positive:Its a nice zoo to visit with family on a weekend.Its a very friendly place for kids, each section has clean toilets. Most of the facility is accessible for people with wheelchair.Negative:They have express busses from Mechelen train station which is not convenient I believe, they should have a direct bus from Brussels. So, Id recommend visiting with a car.Diversity of animals were limited

Very nice zoo. We get a very close view of animals. Dont miss the birds show and the feeding of the animals. Take the top seats during birds show, the birds fly very close enough.

a beautiful and interesting zoo to visit but still incomplete...but thats okay, very entertaining i like it

We love Planckendael and we intend to buy the annual subscription. Its close to home and very well curated. Our son loves it and we hope our younger soon will soon grow uo to love it too.Food is a tad expensive. Entry tickets for 2 adults and a toddler (baby goes in free+ parking ticket was around a €100, which is fine... but canteen food at almost 20eur a meal feels a bit expensive.

Okay zoo, but there’s a lot of construction going on. The Oceania part of the zoo is completely closed off and some other parts are currently under construction. All fine but definitely not worth the full price.Food and drinks are very not affordable, a coke costs €3,70 and a water costs €3,20 (?????). There’s a donut truck that sells grocery store donuts for €3,20.It’s a zoo so I wasn’t expecting cheap foods and drinks but the prices ar Planckendael are insanely high.Anyways, enough ranting about the catering. The zoo itself is okay, there’s several ‘districts’ that are bound to a certain continent of the planet, for example Asia and America. The habitats for the animals are pretty large, some other zoo’s can learn from this.There’s enough variation of animals, although we didn’t get to see them all as some were either inside, not there or their habitat was undergoing maintenance.There are multiple playgrounds so there’s plenty stuff to do if you have kids with you. There’s even a place with water for the summer.Parking isn’t an issue, there’s a ‘small’ parking lot (~400 spotsand a big parking lot (~1500 spots). The second parking lot is connected to the zoo via a tunnel, so no dangerous road crossing.Overall a decent zoo, good care for animals and enough entertainment for kids.

nice big zoo, but Ive seen more beautiful ones, actually it is not just zoo but it is better to say that it is a family park, there are several restaurants inside and a lot of playgrounds and climbing places for children and even for adults, they have not so many animals, I would say 50 to 50 as animals to attractions, pros: a very funny place for children, interesting themed parts of the zoo, pinguins and flamingos were gorgeous, a lot of toilets available, easy parking, good orientation, cons: two thematic sections are still under construction, one of the restaurants was closed, others were full of people, the price is too high, parking is paid even if the parking lots were almost empty, a little bit overcrowded

We went there a bit late in the afternoon on a week day which meant the place clsed at 4:00pm but we managed to see lots of animals including elephants, cheetahs and 🦒 This is a lovely place to visit with kids.

Great place to spend time with family. We visited it several times and decided to take a membership card. We usually come here for all day. There are not only animals, there are also several playgrounds for children of different ages so everyone can find the way of spending time.They make some renovation but it doesnt make any difficulties to see animals and walk around.There is also nice shop were you can find really nice toys.From time to time there is a dinosaurus light show so next time we hope to visit it.Will be happy to come here again!Great thans for all people taking care about nature here!

Its a fun zoo. Especially kids friendly because the park is divided in continents and the maps that they provide are very kids friendly. Ideal for a fun day out and the park is not too big so you can walk without a problem

Very nice:))Many play areas for children, happy animals.Enough space for the animals compared to other zoos.Very interesting information, friendly staff.Rather pricey but I guess its better to take a yearly ticket.The parking is big but doesnt explain the price - 9€/day, but all together a nice experience.

Very good zoo. A lot of animals. And very nice playgrounds for kids. Water playground nice for hot days (don’t forget towels for kids)! Good adventure for whole day and more! The food is very good (pizza and sandwiches were okey!and taste coffee. So bad that you must pay extra for parking place (9euro). But overall I recommend a lot! (Better buy abonnement than normal one entrance ticket! )

Very nice visit! Nice walk through nature and seeing many animals. Sadly bit crowded in most places.

Very nice zoo, with couple of playgrounds, room for babies with changing table and microwave! The most cool mkmemts-feeding time for certain animals. And also very nice place with gorillas!

Great place to be a lot of animals and a lot of play places for the kids. Its really recommended for adults but also with kids

A fun zoo. The Planckendael Zoo offers a lovely day out in a very nice park with a great collection of animals from all over the world. The park is informative about the animals and the international preservation programs for the endangered species. It’s a good example of a classical zoo that is evolving with the times. There are well thought of routes you can follow to visit the park. They have a great bird show too. Many animal enclosures have special view points for children, who can also enjoy a multitude of larger and smaller play grounds. The park is very attentive in taking and controlling Covid-19-measures. It is easy to reach and is located near Brussels, Mechelen, Antwerp and Mechelen.

Very nice place. 4 continents animals with cultures settings inside. Had music in background and staff was available. There is littel water area as well for kids to play. Definitely recommend this place to visit

Although I’m not a big fan or supporter of zoo’s, this one is a bit different. The animals have more space to roam free than most zoo’s. They are really looked after and cared for. It is know for the storks. They return every year for mating. Nice family day out.

A very good park, a lot for children ( play areas also. The park is good guided. Not all the animals are to close to each other so always toom to stand. One small thing not so many toilets and trash cans.

Very nice and amazingly organized Zoo, love that it is divided by continents and decorated accordingly. Besides the abundance of animals, the Zoo also has some small playgrounds here and there for kids and adults, so you can both watch and play. Definitely recommended.

Really nice zoo! Everything is well maintained and its devided in themes, these themes are routes which are easy to follow! Its also accessable for people in wheelchairs, they can also see most of the animals! So in short, its a great zoo!

Nice and well maintained zoo.. Animals look healthy. Cost is minimum 27 euro which is a bit too high for what it has to offer. Maybe much more suitable with children!

This Zoo is top in Europe from my point of view. Large and opened spaces for the wild animals and visitors can find a lot of animals, me and my family were impressed. I recommend it for the families with kids, you can stay there for whole day and you dont know when time passed.

Nice exciting zoo with a lot of animals and various little adventures situated in each contend. A lot of small playing areas for the children. The entrance fee is not very cheap, but its really worth a visit. Explore the world around us at Planckendael!

Very nice place to visit. I recommend to start with Africa / America route and then move to Asia. It is very large zoo and you need to walk a lot. There are scheduled shows so get all the needed information / map at the entrance. Restaurants/ cafes inside the zoo are rather expensive so it is recommended to bring you own food to save some money. If you have small kids and live close by consider getting a yearly subscription to be able to visit the place more times with a fixed price. Highly recommended!

It was my first time here and I loved it!The zoo is divided in themes/ continents and that is really great, you can hear some ambient music in some places and, for example, the decorations in Asia really takes you there. Its amazing.In some parts the animals are free, like for example in the penguins zone or the lemurs.Its really great and fun, we spent a day there and we didnt noticed.Tip: we dont have kids, and we had a great time, the zoo its not only for kids 😉

Very beautiful animal park with high regards for animal wellbeing. Touching animals not possible. Big parking space outside of the park and small bike parking inside the park. High prices for tickets (+€20/pp and food though! I recommend finding deals on entry tickets in magazines. Plenty of toilets, restaurants and snackbars. When I went there was a nice Lego-animal exposition which was really cool to see. Usually very busy park though!

Extremely large zoo with many side activities for children which justifies the entrance fee (26.50€ for adults plus 8€ parking fee). Spacious enclosures throughout and multiple opportunities to walk among the animals (e.g. penguins, flamingos, tropical birds, lemurs). Enclosures and animals are grouped by geographical regions with intelligently and creatively laid out routes.